Polymita Picta - The Painted Snails

I chose to use this snail in my hybrid because it is considered by many experts as the most beautiful land snail on the planet. I love the bright, contrasting colourless and distinctive polychrome shells and I want to incorporate some of this beauty into my hybrid. The name 'Polymita' is a mixture of two Greek words, the first one being 'poly' which means many, and the second being 'mitts' meaning stripes. 

These snails are found in tropical Cuban rain forests but they are highly endangered because they have a number of predators, the most threatening one being humans. People pluck the snails off the trees and sell them as Cuban souvenirs or as collectives. These snails are commonly known as 'painted snails' because of their beautifully bright colours and patterns. They survive on eating lichens and fungi so they are most commonly found on branches of trees, tree trunks and bushes. They like to live in very humid areas to ensure there is plenty of fungi to feed on. When there is a long drought, the snails will clump together to form colonies and stay dormant until the drought is over. The snails life expectancy is from about 15 to 19 months. 

I wasn't sure whether I originally wanted to make my snail hybrid scary or striking; however now, after eyeing all these stunning colours, I want to make my hybrid beautiful and break taking. I want to choose a specific Polymita snail because they all look so different and I want to be able to just focus on one colour scheme. Below are images I found of the different colour variations so that I could compare and choose the one I think would work the best. The snails come in many different colours but it is said that they never come in blue. 

Examples of the different colour varieties are shown below:

ALLPE, 2012. The snail rainbow Polymita picta [7 November 2015]. Available from: 
http://www.medioambiente.org/2012/11/el-caracol-arcoiris-polymita-picta.html

ALLPE, 2012. The snail rainbow Polymita picta [7 November 2015]. Available from: 

http://www.medioambiente.org/2012/11/el-caracol-arcoiris-polymita-picta.html

BROOKE, C., 2011. A Plethora Of Painted Snails. In: Featured Creature. 3 July 2011 [7 November 2015]. 
Available from: https://featuredcreature.com/plethora-of-painted-snails/

BROOKE, C., 2011. A Plethora Of Painted Snails. In: Featured Creature. 3 July 2011 [7 November 2015]. 
Available from: https://featuredcreature.com/plethora-of-painted-snails/

Resources:
FERNANDEZ, A., 2010. The Garden of Polymitas [7 November 2015]. Available from: http://www.cubaabsolutely.com/AboutCuba/article_nature.php?id=The-Garden-of-Polymitas